Discussions about autism often focus on children, but what
happens when those same children grow up and head to college?

Since 2012, William & Mary’s Neurodiversity Working
Group has been working to explore and celebrate the neurological differences in
the College’s population. Last year, a University Teaching Project (UTP) grew
out of the group, with the aim to focus on the classroom experience for
students. Now, the members of the UTP are providing guidance to those students
and the professors who teach them.

“We wanted to have these tools that other faculty could use
to try to create more inclusive classrooms and try to create a better classroom
climate for students who are neurologically diverse,” said Karin Wulf, associate professor of history and American studies.

Sponsored by the Charles Center with the support of Dean
Joel Schwartz, UTPs allow faculty members to explore new ways of teaching. Associate
Professor of Psychology and Director of Neuroscience Josh Burk, who organized
the UTP entitled “Strategies for Enhancing the Educational Experience of
Students with Autism Spectrum Disorder: Implications for the W&M Student
Body,” said that the idea sprang from a need of the Neurodiversity Working
Group.

“We have a lot of contributors who are part of the
Neurodiversity Working Group on campus,” he said, “but one component that we
saw was missing was the classroom component.”

Understanding
W&M’s population

Burk, Wulf and the other members of the UTP – Assistant
Professor of Psychology Cheryl Dickter and Chair and Professor of Psychology Janice
Zeman -- started their work last summer by looking at what the few other
universities working on these issues have been doing, and collecting data from
William & Mary’s own community.

“Although we can look at best practices at other
universities, it is also important that we understand what our population at
William & Mary looks like,” Burk said.

Dickter, an assistant professor of psychology, said that
they collected data from a group of approximately 600 students at the College.

“As part of this, we assessed one specific measure that has
been linked to autistic characteristics, the Autism Quotient,” Dickter said.
“It’s a self-report questionnaire that assesses these autistic characteristics and
behaviors, and so we got an idea of how many students have these autistic tendencies.
It’s not a diagnosis, but just gives us an idea of the characteristics of our
student population.”

The researchers also asked the students how many had been formally
diagnosed with autism and whether students without diagnoses had experiences
with other students whom they thought might have autism.

Because the Autism Quotient isn’t a diagnostic measure, the
professors must be careful in how they interpret their findings. However, they
did say that some students scored above the reported cut-off for clinically
significant autistic attributes. Extrapolated to the campus community, those
numbers could equal approximately 70 to 100 students in the total undergraduate
population. However, Dickter pointed out, “the average score of our students
looks to be about the average score of students nationwide, so it doesn’t seem
like we have a greater or lesser prevalence of these self-reported traits or
behaviors.”

The researchers also found that people who said that they
had been diagnosed with autism and the people who scored high on the Autism Quotient
were two separate groups of people.

“There was nobody who said they had been diagnosed who
scored high, and all of the students who scored high had never been diagnosed,
so it could also be the case that there are individuals on campus who have
autistic tendencies and are on the autism spectrum but have never been
diagnosed,” said Dickter.

Explaining the
‘hidden rules’

In order to help students with autism succeed in the
classroom, the members of the UTP created a presentation on their research and
findings, which they have given to faculty members across campus. In it, the
professors suggest things like making clear course and classroom expectations,
said Burk.

The UTP members also created “hidden rules” guidelines for
students.

“It’s an instrument for people to use in their classrooms to
help students adapt to a particular kind of classroom setting because that is
one thing we know from our literature review that is missing,” said Wulf. “It’s
those hidden or implicit rules that may not be available to students on the
autism spectrum.”

For example, Wulf continued, they explain social space
rules.

“Neurotypical people will know I’m supposed to be sitting
this far from Josh, that I’m not supposed to be squished up to him,” she said.
“We say in the hidden rules, your chair should be spaced accordingly. Your
stuff should be spaced on the table so that you aren’t taking up too much room,
for example. Things like that that are implicit rules of social behavior and
expectations that will not be clear to people who don’t pick up on social
cues.”

The tools that the UTP members have created do not just
benefit students with autism but represent best practices for creating an
inclusive classroom that can benefit most, if not all, students, Zeman added.

“We know that many of the pedagogical strategies that are
appropriate to people who are on the autism spectrum will be beneficial to most
people,” said Wulf. “If they are autistic or dealing with social phobias, they
will be super-useful. The idea of best practices is that it will target a
specific group, but it’s helpful to everyone.”

For example, having professors provide a clear, organized
plan for the semester and even for each class can provide the type of structure
and predictability that students on the spectrum as well as neurotypical
students can use to be successful. Understanding that group work often presents
students with autism and those with social anxiety with unique challenges and
concerns can help professors to tailor these types of assignments or respond
with more understanding and flexibility should issues arise.

Enriching the
community

The members of the UTP have received positive feedback on
their efforts from both faculty members and students, the professors said. They
have been asked by other universities to share their findings and tools, and
they have included their presentation and “hidden rules” guidelines on the
Neurodiversity Working Group’s website.
But their work still isn’t done.

“One of the things we’re hoping to do is develop a
one-credit course to educate and create a climate of greater acceptance,” said
Burk.

“We know that all kinds of diversity enrich our community,”
said Wulf. “Neurodiversity enriches our community in the same way that racial
diversity, gender diversity and ethnic diversity do.”